


Purple, Like Bruises

by TrashAYfanfiction



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Appearances, Childhood Friends, Consentual Body Modification, Delinquents, Frienship DIY tattoos, Hair Dyeing, Light Angst, M/M, Male Friendship, Marijuana, Personal identity, Piercings, Shoplifting, Tattoos, Teenage Rebellion, Young punks, casual drug usage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 21:26:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17553488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrashAYfanfiction/pseuds/TrashAYfanfiction
Summary: It wasn’t Shorter’s idea, but Shorter suggested it. It was an unspoken want that the boy voiced for him. When Shorter’s hair grew out, the boy shaved it into a Mohawk and dyed it purple.Ash was even more entranced. Such a weird shape. It was attention grabbing…. But it was attention on Shorter’s own terms. Shorter chose to look like this.





	Purple, Like Bruises

**Author's Note:**

  * For [insectoide666 on Twiter](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=insectoide666+on+Twiter).



> For insectoide666 on Twitter for giving me the idea. Yall can find me on Twitter https://twitter.com/FishboneLynx or Tumblr https://www.tumblr.com/blog/trashayfanfiction. I love these two as BFFs, it reminds me of when I was young.

 

It wasn’t Shorter’s idea, but Shorter suggested it. It was an unspoken want that the boy voiced for him.

Shorter suggested it.

He would never tell Golzine that. But Ash was fascinated by the other boy. His freedom. The fact that he’d chose to shave his head when they first met in juvie. Ash was jealous. If only I could do that.

                He’d always hated his blonde hair and green eyes, light build; pretty like a girl. An easy target.

When his friend’s stubbly hair began to grow in Ash would run his palms along the other’s scalp, feeling the bristliness. “It feels so weird!!” Ash told him between other teasing. It was true. He’d never had a buzzcut himself. When Griff came home from bootcamp Ash did the same thing, feeling his hair.

                When Shorter’s hair grew out, the boy shaved it into a mohawk and dyed it purple.

Ash was even more entranced. Such a weird shape. It was attention grabbing…. But it was attention on Shorter’s own terms. Shorter chose to look like this.

Shorter made Ash help pierce his ear a few months after. A cork from a wine bottle and a boiled safety pin. He lay on the couch as Ash jabbed it through the previously unmarked lobe.

An exhale of “Motherfucker that hurts,” and then more swearing as they attempted to force the captive bead ring into the newly opened skin. Ash’s fingers were pink and there were a few pink dots on the couch, but Shorter grinned happily in the grimy bathroom mirror, thoroughly impressed by the feat and his reflection.

The mohawk was dyed purple after that. The sink was purple and the hand towels were purple and the back of Shorter’s neck and shoulders and his hand up to his wrists were purple. Ash had leaned against the wall and watched.

While the dye set Shorter came after him, leaving small purple mars in Ash’s angelically blonde hair and a large purple swipe on his white T-shirt. He saved that t-shirt and smiled at it.

Dino asked what was in his hair. Ash said he ‘didn’t know what he was talking about.’

When Shorter got his eyebrow pierced at an actual shop, Ash could barely contain his jealousy. Shorter knew the guy, so he did it without age verification. Ash was happy for his friend, but….

“You know, you can do it too, if you want,” The sixteen-year-old told him, passing the blunt. They were back at Shorter’s apartment above the Chang Dai.

Ash shook his head, “No I can’t, it wouldn’t suit me,”

“That’s why it’d be fun. You’re so confused when I do it, I think you should try,”

“Ah, No. I really shouldn’t,”

“That’s what you said about this stuff,” Shorter flicked the slim wrist, gesturing to the small paper roll in Ash’s fingers. “You’re so much better when you’re not so high-strung,”

…..Griff got fucked up on drugs. That’s all he was told. This made him uncomfortable at first.

“Are you saying you don’t like my regular personality?” Slow rolling voice, accusatory but careful to not step too harshly on toes….

“I’m saying lighten up. If you don’t like it, it’s not like it’s permanent. Tattoos are permanent. That’s why I don’t got any of those. I might straighten out like Nadia wants and grow up to run the Chang Dai someday. Turn it into a real classy fivestar place?”

Ash giggled, “Not with your cooking,”

“Excuse you, I have Biz-ness skills,” Shorter enunciated, before taking a drag.

“Sure,” Ash snatched the paper back, “What do you think I’d look good with?”

“Well, what do you want?” Dark brown eyes stared him down overtop of sunglasses. The boy stuck out his tongue.

  _You pierced your tongue too?_

 

……Ash had never really thought about it. _What do I want?_

“…..I want to not look like me…..”

“Gonna be committing some real ‘A-class’ crimes up in here, I see. I see.”

“No, nothing like that, I assure you,” but…. That’s tempting. Who was the infamous Ash Lynx if not for a blonde, green-eyed, pretty-boy? What would this new identity give him?

“It’d suit you more than a pair of spectacles, four-eyes,”

……Ash hadn’t let Shorter know about his glasses.

…………………………………………………………………

 

“We’ll be Joker colors, like motherfuckin’ Batman!”

Ash rolled his eyes. “Yeah, perfect duo,”

Honestly, he just shoved the first obnoxiously color hair dye he saw into his pants. Waistband holding it in place, long shirt covering…. Could be mistaken as his bulge. He didn’t know what color he had until he got home.

The acid green wouldn’t have worked on any base color other than his pale hair. They hadn’t lifted any bleach. He hadn’t even thought about it.

………………………………………………………………….

They didn’t cut his hair, only dyed it. “Just in case you really hate it,” Shorter told him. For someone who didn’t give a fuck he was being surprisingly careful. “I think we can bleach it out if you don’t like it,”

 _It’s weird when you’re careful with me_. “Just do it,”

………………………………………………………………………..

Who was that in the mirror? He looked like a goblin or something, hair still wet and sticking up from washing out the excess dye.

The green made his eyes very blue.

…….It was better than looking like an angel. Very out-of-body looking at himself.

He must have been smiling because Shorter bounded behind him, ruffling his work. “Like it?”

 

Ash stared for a moment at himself and his smiling Chinese-American friend in the mirror.  

He nodded.

“At loss for words? I think my handywork is good then,”

Ash caught him by the arm before he could leave. “Ah…. Thank you?”

A moment of surprise flashed over the older teen’s face before it softened, “…You’re welcome. Do you want a piercing too?”

 

Ash tensed. Rolling words over in his head.

 

“What do you want?”

“I don’t know,”

“Area. Give me options,”

“My face,” _I don’t want them to like looking at me…._

“What would you like?”

“Nothing sexual,”

“Piercings are inherently sexual,”

Ash swallowed. He’s right. Lips…. Bitten with kisses. Tongue…. Obvious. Nose? No, pulled like a bull ring.

“Eyebrow,” he settled on.

Shorter clicked his tongue, “I’m not okay with doing that. I hear if you fuck it up, I can paralyze half your face,”

“Do it,” Ash was unregretful.

“How about I get your ear?”

………………………………………………..

The cheap piece of metal glinted in the yellow lights. A little farther back than center. Shorter was never good at details….

“Do you like it?”

“It’s wonderful,” It was. A pewter dragon charm hung from the horseshoe.

“I was saving that one for myself, but I like it on you,” _You’re like a beautiful dragon lady. Small, lithe and dangerous._

He had to agree with Shorter. It did look good. He smiled.

This was the first time he ever liked his reflection.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

When Dino took him home three days later he was in trouble.

“If you want to look like a common whore, I’ll treat you like one!”

It’d been a while since he’d been assigned random clients. He hadn’t forgotten how horrible it was not knowing who did what and what to predict.

His bellybutton was pierced. Small glittering gem inviting to gaze down his slim hips.

The dragon earring was thrown away.

His hair was bleached even fairer than it had been. None of the clients noticed…. Or none cared. He was blonde enough underneath, it’s not like he had dark roots showing.

 

……………………………………………………………..

“What the hell happened to you?” This wasn’t the first time he’d showed up beaten and shaking, but this was the first time he almost was crying.

Black eye almost as purple as Shorter’s hair. It wasn’t often he came back with a scuffed up face.

 

Shorter helped him shave his head. “We’re going to use the 1” buzzers okay? I think you’d look a little weird totally bald, and I don’t want you looking like a skinhead,”

Ash sniffed and agreed.

……………………………………………………….

He got punished for that too.

He let his hair grow back to normal. No more piercings.

Dino never noticed the new mark though. On the inside of his big toe, a DIY purple smudge. A sketchy ‘S’ stylized to look like a dragon. Messy and overall not artistic.

He’d written ‘Angle” on the other’s inner ankle. He said he’d wanted “Angel” as something to commemorate Ash. Ash had spelled it to him before he wrote it, just to see if the other would catch the purposeful misspelling.

Small, subtle. Nobody needed to know.

It took his friend almost a year to realize the ‘mistake’, confronting him exasperated, but not furious. Ash smiled and gave him a hug. “It’s because I love you,” he joked. Half joked. This is what love felt like, wasn’t i?

……………………………………………………………………

The tattoo smudged out after a few years.

 

It still lasted longer than Shorter did.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry it's not as NSFW as discussed. Might have a 'fill in' chapter that is dirty.


End file.
